Lowbrook Academy catchment area properties £31,200 bonus for parents

I was having a chat with a Maidenhead property investor the other day, when he asked if schools, especially primary schools, affected the local property market in terms of demand from buyers and tenants to a property.  Anecdotally, I have always known this to be true, a good school creates good demand and good demand does affect house prices.  So, I asked my colleagues on the front line, who take the phone calls from people putting themselves on our mailing list and they confirmed that most people cite location as their number one factor.

After looking through our mailing list, it confirms there is a close correlation between the high demand areas of Maidenhead and the close proximity to a good primary school.  Talking to my team in a recent morning meeting, they agreed many people would look to increase their budget quite significantly, whilst others would consider downgrading their property requirements to be close to a good primary school.

Those of you who regularly read this blog will know I like a challenge, so I decided to look at the science behind these assumptions.  According to the SchoolGuide website, Lowbrook Academy Primary School is one of the best primary schools in Maidenhead.  Its figures are certainly impressive. Their last Ofsted Report classified it as Outstanding, 98% of 11-year pupils achieving Level 4 or above in maths, reading and writing whilst 74% of them achieved level 5.  Finally, the schools’ KS2 rating was classed as Excellent.

Looking at property sales within half a mile of Lowbrook Academy, property values have risen in value since 2001 by 96.61%, whilst according to the Land Registry, the Maidenhead average as a whole has risen in the same time frame by 91.03%.

That means the parents of Lowbrook Academy have seen the values of their properties rise proportionally 6.13% more than the Maidenhead average ... it doesn’t sound a lot until you realise that has added an extra £31,200 to the values of those properties in the catchment area.. interesting don’t you think?

However, whilst a good primary school significantly contributes more to house prices, the same can’t be said for secondary schools. There are two reasons for this, firstly, as secondary schools are much larger, so their catchment areas are correspondingly much larger, meaning parents don’t need to live so close to the school. Secondly, in the UK, whilst the difference between the top 25% and bottom 25% of secondary schools is not insignificant, in the primary school sector, the difference between the top 25% and bottom 25%, according to the London School of Economics, is considerably and significantly more.

Many other Maidenhead landlords, both who are with us and many who are with other Maidenhead agents, like to ring/email us to discuss the Maidenhead property market, to consider how Maidenhead compares with its closest rivals and hopefully we can answer all their questions. You must take lots of advice and seek out the best opinion. One good source of opinion, specific to the Maidenhead property market is the Maidenhead Property Blog http://maidenheadpropertyblog.blogspot.co.uk.

I don’t bite, I don’t do hard sell, I will just give you my honest and straight talking opinion.